Pat McQuaid, the president of the International Cycling Union (UCI), has
revealed, that to his knowledge, that Lance Armstrong is the only rider ever
to make a donation to the UCI and that in hindsight their decision to accept
a $100,000 donation towards a drug testing machine was possibly wrong.

Generous: Lance Armstrong made a $100,000 donation to the International Cycling UnionPhoto: GETTY IMAGES

McQuaid does, however, completely reject any suggestions that such a donation came after Armstrong allegedly "tested" positive in the 2001 Tour of Switzerland.

"The UCI take seriously the accusation that the UCI took a bribe to hide the positive test of Lance Armstrong in 2001," said McQuaid who says an email trail of correspondence will soon be posted on the UCI website to back up his insistence that Armstrong did not test positive.

"We've contacted in recent days the labs involved for testing for EPO [erythropoietin] at that time. I have statement here from those labs that support what I am about to say. The letters will also soon be published on the UCI website in a sign of transparency.

"First the letter from the Paris lab, that is under the AFLD [French Anti-Doping Agency]. They had three positives for EPO in the UCI account between 2001 and 2003. Two in 2001 and one in 2003. All the reports were sent to the UCI in 2001 and 2002 and 2003 were also sent CPLD and also sent to the International Olympic Committee.

"In relation to Lausanne, there were 18 positive tests for EPO for the UCI controlled by this lab between 2001 and 2003: six in 2001, four in 2002 and eight in 2003. All analysis was sent to IOC and Swiss Olympic.

"I also have a letter from WADA that states from January 2004, every positive result for UCI also went to the WADA. I also have a report from the Tour de Suisse from 2001 which states that there was no doping case in 2001."

"All this information supports what the UCI has always stated: That there is no way that the UCI or its former president Hein Verbruggen could have accepted a bribe. It's just not possible.

"To the best of my knowledge," continued McQuaid, "the UCI has not accepted other donations and I'd just like to clarify that there was only one donation from Lance Armstrong not two or three.

"You have to consider that at the time, in 2002, no accusations against Lance Armstrong had been made. They've all came up since then. We accepted the donation to help develop the sport. We didn't think there's a conflict of interest. It's easy to say in hindsight what could or would have been done. You have to put yourself in the situation at the time.

"I think based on experience, based on hindsight and 20/20 vision, and based on the claims of a conflict of interest, the UCI would be very careful before accepting a donation from a rider in the future. Having said that the UCI is not a rich organisation and we have many demands from around the world for demands for support and material. We will listen to anyone who can help us."

Meanwhile, the French Cycling Federation (FFC) is to investigate claims by Floyd Landis that his former directeur sportif John Lelangue - now in charge of BMC Racing who boast world champion Cadel Evans in their ranks - was implicated in his own drug taking during the 2006 season when he competed in the Tour de France. Lelangue angrily rejects any such claim and has promised his full co-operation as soon as the Giro d'Italia , which Evans still s a chance of winning, finishes in Verona on Sunday.